Better Late Than Never
by Ciella
Summary: Geoffrey St. John calls his old rival for a well-deserved apology.


Long after the war ended, and after many of the allies had been married and started families of their own, some drifted apart, and some stayed in touch. There was one notable incidence of reaching out.

Sonic had been visiting Antoine at his estate, along with Sally and the kids, when a call came in from his sister-in-law. Someone had been trying to reach him, but never left any information at the castle. She was concerned because he was calling the private line, meaning that he had access to intimate information. Sonic convinced her that it was probably fine and she shouldn't worry, just document the calls as best she could and wait for him and Sally to return. "It's probably nothing," he told the adults. "It's usually Tails, trying to tell me a dumb joke. Elias hates it, but they're usually pretty good!"

But before they could return home, Sally's cell phone rang. It was about eight o'clock. They had just retired to their rooms from a sumptuous dinner. Sally's skin crawled at the perfect timing; she had an inkling. "Hello?"

"Hello," she was stunned to hear an Australian accent. "Have I got Sally?"

Sally could've been knocked over with a feather. "Geoffrey?"

"Oh, thank god, someone in your family answers the damn phone! I've been trying to call the castle for a week now, and all your sister-in-law does is pick up the phone and do that horror movie mouth-breathing."

"You've been scaring her, not introducing yourself. She thinks you're someone who's wrongfully attained access."

"Well, yes and no; I'm me, after all. Besides, she's been scaring me." His voice was smug and wry, but also tired, as if he was trying very hard. "Sally, let me be quite honest with you. I have a big favor to ask, and I haven't been the kind of friend who deserves such a favor."

Sally sat down on the beatiful plush guest bed, pillowy soft duvet collapsing beneath her. "Are you ok? What's this favor?"

Sonic was gesturing furiously, trying to figure out what could possibly be going on. Geoffrey answered, "I'm sorry to be vague, Sally, but yes and no. I'm trying to come to terms with a lot of things about myself, and it's something that thought I'd be doing at nineteen or ninety rather than thirty-nine. I'm in good health, you don't have to worry there. Hershey's fine. My little girl is turning ten next month. But there are a lot of things I've never been able to reconcile, and one of them is the way I let things go with Sonic. I've been meaning to make things right- as right as I can, anyway."

"Do you want to talk to him?"

"Do you think he'll just hang up on me?" The veteran sounded like a teenager about to make a move, his voice prepared for failure.

"I think you two should try. It'd be good for you."

"Well, here goes nothing, right?"

"Right. And Geoffrey," Her voice softened a great deal. Sonic's face hardened. "I'm so proud of you."

He was speechless for a few seconds. "Thank you, Princess."

Sally handed the phone over to Sonic. "Please, talk to him. He wants to make amends. I'll leave you two alone for a bit."

Sonic listened as the door closed, then as Sally's footsteps faded away. Geoffrey made no noise whatsoever. "Hey, uh, you there, Geoff?"

"Geoffrey," he bristled, then took a quick breath. "Excuse me. Call me Geoffrey."

"I'm sorry, man. I've been calling you that for the longest time. I had no idea you hated it."

"I don't _hate_ it," he mused shyly, a strange intonation in Sonic's ears. "It's just- only Hershey calls me that. It'd probably be weird if anyone but you called Sally 'Sal', right?"

Sonic leaned against the wall, overly aware of everything his body was doing: breathing, blinking, swallowing, pulsing. Everything felt awkward. "I... never even thought about that. I'm so sorry, man."

"No, Sonic, I should be apologizing to you." He took a deep breath. "I should have told you that a very long time ago. A lot of it is very boring and I won't trouble you with it, but it will come as no surprise to you that I was having issues with anger. There were things you did that bothered me that I never brought to your attention, because part of me got off on getting enraged and then letting it all out."

Sonic chuckled drearily. "Who finally made you see that?"

"Hershey."

"I see."

"Sonic?"

"I'm here, man."

"I'm so very sorry, Sonic."

"What?" Sonic's voice broke. Not as someone does when crying, but just as one whose voice fails him, becoming speechless in the middle of a syllable. Geoffrey's voice seemed very small and very distant, even for the distortion that normally occurs in a phone.

"I know, it's a long time coming. It's far too little far too late. But please, Sonic, know how sorry I am for everything I did as a young man. You tried over and over again to make things right between us and I never saw how much courage it took to do that until I tried to do it myself."

Sonic realized that, had Geoffrey continued speaking, he'd be in tears. Sonic found himself similarly torn up. "Geoff- Geoffrey, you okay?"

"Yes, yes, I'm okay."

"That means a lot to me, what you've just said. Thank you."

"Geoffrey?"

"Yes?"

"I want to show you how cool I think it is that you bothered to do this."

"Oh, but it's so late!"

"Shut up, better late than never! Quit being a perfectionist." Sonic laughed out loud. "I think we should hang out, start over, you know?"

"Just the two of us, or the whole lot?"

"Just the two of us. Sally really loves double dates, so maybe we can work our way up to the whole lot over time."

He could hear a breathy laugh from Geoffrey's end. "Thank you, Sonic. I'd really like that."

They agreed to meet in a week, after Sonic and his family returned to the states, at one of the historic bars in new mobotropolis. They would sit and drink together, and not worry about much but having a good time. When all was said and done, Sonic ended the call with a shaking finger and a big grin on his face.


End file.
